Stop the war!

A special report on Germany: Much to learn | The Economist
A war of ideologiesThere is “no consensus on the content and goals of education”, says Mrs Schavan. The arguments extend from primary schools to universities and are as much about tradition and status as about learning. Many Germans are loth to scrap a system so closely identified with the country’s economic and cultural success.

„Es herrscht keine Einigkeit über Inhalt und Ziel der Bildung.“ Soweit das Zitat der Ministerin Schavan aus dem Economist. Es tut immer gut, das eigene Land durch die Brille eines anderen zu sehen – wie etwa durch die des Economist!

Ich meine: Hat man sich geeinigt, wohin man will, dann wird man auch über die Wege Einigkeit finden. Weiter im Economist:

A controversy now raging in Hamburg, a port city and one of Germany’s smallest states, illustrates the strife. In 2008 the Christian Democrats, normally champions of the three-tier high-school system, formed their first state-level coalition with the left-leaning Green Party. The Greens won agreement for a radical school reform, mainly by extending primary schooling (and thus shortening secondary schooling) by two years. The idea was that if streaming children by ability is done later, the slower ones will have a better chance of doing well and the brighter ones will at least fare no worse.